#597: Old-time radio

(I wrote something like this 1nce 4 my old dead website, but its been gone 4 3 years & I wanted 2 get this stuff down again B4 I 4got it all....)

I remember what radio was like B4 The Playlist took over, B4 Clear Channel & Cumulus clogged things up with the same-old-same-old. I remember when you could go from Donny Osmond 2 The Stylistics 2 Ten Years After within 5 mins. & they called it "pop."
I 1st started listening 2 the radio in the Fall of 1970, when I noticed my classmates in 6th grade seemed 2 B addicted 2 it. & they brought the records that grabbed their ears 2 lunchtime, 2 play on the record-player at the back of class: "Spirit in the Sky," "Hitchin' a Ride," "Lay a Little Lovin' on Me." Really innocent stuff. Bubblegum pop.
I was lucky 2 B living in Tacoma, Wash., which was home 2 a pretty wide-open radio market. We got a ton of stations from Seattle, but #1 in Tacoma was KTAC-AM 85, the local "Top 40" station. But it was a whole diffrent Top 40 then, & you got a LOT more than just the 40 most popular songs every couple hrs.
KTAC was famous 4 playing Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" every aft around 3:30, just as the kids got out of school, so we could space-out to it on the long bus-ride home. & every Fri nite at 10 they'd play Iron Butterfly's 18-minute "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" -- whatta trip! Still remember the eerie wind-up organ that kicks that side off, not 2 mention The World's Longest Drum Solo buried in the middle of it....
KTAC was tops among kids my age, but if you didn't like what they were playing, Seattle's KJR 95 AM was an OK backup. KJR was farther off, a little staticky & fuzzy, but pretty reliable until they cut power around 9 pm. Meanwhile, KTAC was busy blasting thru the Tacoma fog, less than 10 miles from my house. I used to wake up 2 it, go 2 sleep 2 it, all the news I needed 2 hear was on KTAC.
I remember the DJs' names, I remember their silly morning comedy shows like "The Adventures of Chicken Man" ("the greatest crime fighter THE WORLD ... has ever known") & "The Tooth Fairy" -- hell, I even remember some of the COMMERCIALS they used 2 run -- like 1 unforgettable spot 4 BG's Tall and Big clothing store, in which a mellow male choir crooned:

If you're tall
If you're big
If you can't find clothes that fit
There's a store that knows about man-size clothes
It's BG's Tall and Big....

KTAC's DJs included "Sugar" Bruce Cannon in the afternoon, Bobby McAllister 4 your drive home starting at 5 -- he'd always start out the weekend with some great the-weekend-is-HERE! rocker like The Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind." There was Dudley the idiot in the morning, always saying Exactly The Wrong Thing during R bus ride 2 school. & there was Gary Crow at night, playin lotsa great stuff as we slept-out under the stars in the summer.
Me & my friend Gene Goodell 1nce sent Gary Crow a letter & he read it on-air & invited us 2 come down 2 the station anytime. We couldn't believe it -- we screamed like girls. & the next time we were at the Tacoma Mall, we tracked down KTAC's office -- high up in a glass-walled office building overlooking South Tacoma.
Course Crow wasn't working -- it wasn't his shift. & when we wandered in2 the office, nobody said a word. We walked past a receptionist & peeked in2 the booth where Bruce Cannon was doing his afternoon show, spinning Lee Michaels' hit "Do You Know What I Mean?" ...& even tho the on-air lite was on, Gene couldn't resist: "Why do they call you Sugar Bruce?" he asked. & Cannon made a loud shushing noise at him, then ignored us 4 the 10 mins we hung around.
Not Xactly a visit worth remembering, but we did see a big bin full of singles & albums marked "CROW'S NEST," so we knew R hero was somewhere around....
Both these stations were pretty adventurous compared 2 these days. In the late afternoons, KTAC would try-out all kinds of stuff that never caught-on: Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Living Without You," Billy Lee Riley's "I Got a Thing About You Baby," Heaven Bound's "Five Hundred Miles," Johnathan King's "A Tall Order for a Short Guy," Brenda and the Tabulations' "One Girl Too Late," Freda Payne's "You Brought the Joy," Lobo's "California Kid and Reemo," lots more.
KJR sometimes played some unusual stuff 2 -- the 1 I remember best is Kracker's "Because of You (The Sun Don't Set)." (The only DJ I remember from KJR is Norm Gregory -- who was STILL ON THE AIR at KJR when I moved back 2 Washington in 1998.) Most of these songs I've never heard on the radio since. Most of 'em I can't track-down on the Internet, either. The most successful of them -- Manfred Mann -- peaked in the low '60s nationally.
Tho my 1 visit 2 KTAC was nothing earth-shaking, summa this fascination with radio continued when I moved back home 2 Boise, Idaho in Fall 1973. There KFXD AM 580 was the only station rock fans'd ever need -- & they were pretty open-minded 2, playing odd stuff like 10 CC's "Rubber Bullets" & "Wall Street Shuffle," ELP's "Still, You Turn Me On," Steely Dan's "My Old School," Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin," The Eagles' "Outlaw Man," Pratt & McClain's "When My Ship Comes In," Tim Moore's "Second Avenue," Nigel Olsson's "Only One Woman," Andy Pratt's "Pistol Packin' Melody," The Hudson Brothers' "So You Are a Star" & "Rendezvous"....
Knew mosta the names & voices at KFXD, 2. "The Good Doctor" Drew Harold & J. Donovan West led-off the mornings, Bob Lee handled the afternoons, Charlie Fox did the evenings, Chuck Love & Wendy Green handled late nites. Don Kelley was in there somewhere.... Tom Scott was on now&then, B4 he moved on 2 B a TV sportscaster. In 1982, when KFXD suddenly changed 2 a pretty good oldies station, I called Tom up & asked if he'd play Five Man Electrical Band's "Absolutely Right" -- & he said "That's a GREAT song! I'll get it right on for ya...." & 2 minutes later, it was blasting outta the radio....
When I worked at the record store a few years later, I met a couple of these guys. Bob Lee hadda huge ego -- the best time I ever had with him was calling him at the station when he'd whined on-air about being sick ... & when I said I was sorry 2 hear about his untimely demise, he laffed & said "Yeah, I BET you are...."
Charlie Fox helped out in the record store 1 Christmas & I was SHOCKED 2 discover that he was almost as young as me -- & he knew way less about music than the rest of us. Naturally I just assumed that he Knew His Stuff.... He was also WAY quiet off-the-air....
Late in '73, the wave of the future hit Boise. That's when all-automated all-computerized KBBK-FM suddenly appeared, playing all KINDS of weird stuff I'd never heard B4. That was the 1st place I ever heard Yes's "Starship Trooper." With their pristine, high-definition sound quality, KBBK was sure 2 B a big hit -- & they were. But their lack of live personalities took some getting used-2. Soon enuf, they sounded just like any other Top 40 station in the valley. The 1 strange thing I remember them playing until it burned a hole in my brain was Eric Burdon's screaming "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood/Nina's School."
By 1979 at the latest, all the differences had been ironed out & all the stations sounded the same. KIDO AM briefly sounded great when they went all-rock with a wide-open playlist -- the only place I ever heard Queen's "It's Late" played at that time. But when I called 2 encourage the DJ he sounded pretty down -- he was convinced that only about 4 people in the whole valley were listening 2 him....
By 1982 it was all pretty homogenized. I stayed with KFXD cos they played what I'd become used 2 calling "oldies" & I still recognized the voices. But then I moved away & had other radio-related adventures elsewhere. (See "The Boogie Monster and other adventures.")
When I joined the Air Force I hadda chance 2 Bcome a broadcaster, but I didn't wanna end up broadcasting from a hillside in Korea or an island in the Aleutians. I probly missed my real calling, became a reporter instead. If I'd become a broadcaster I coulda bn paid just as badly & likely woulda bn put out-of-work even sooner....